News

To mark World Population Day on 11 July, seven organizations from three continents are calling on national governments and international institutions to take urgent action in response to the 1992 and 2017 Warnings to Humanity.

These warnings were made by the world’s leading scientists. In 1992, 1,700 scientists urged humankind to curtail environmental destruction and improve its stewardship of the Earth. Last year, 20,000 scientists from 184 countries published a Second Notice, pointing to runaway consumption of limited resources by a still rapidly growing population.

SPA is very excited to share that we are joining forces with the highly loved Melbourne Comedian ROD QUANTOCK to make a web series exploring the topic of population growth!

TOUGH CROWD will be a first of a kind series . Rod will be interviewing other comedians and entertainers to discuss the challenges and difficulties they face when discussing population in wider society.

This series has HUGE potential to draw interest from wider society. Interviews will share their experience with a poignancy and flare that will be engaging and informative.

Furthermore, if Rod has anything to do with it, the web series will also be raucously funny. If there is one thing our movement needs, it is a generous dose of HUMOUR.

It is a project that SPA has never tried before. It is CRITICAL during this time when mainstream society is actually talking about the issue that we are ready to step up to the challenge and reach out to the ‘Tough Crowd’ out there.

To make this project a success, we need YOUR help.

Many SPA members are now aware of our CROWDFUNDING campaign, which we have launched to raise funds for the series. Support for our campaign has been hugely positive so far, we have raised $3000 so far with 2 weeks left to go to reach our target of $4500.

Funds are needed for the production cost of the series, including reimbursements for the interviewees, venue higher, editing and promotion. We also need to to purchase additional film equipment to make this series snappy and professional.

We would be hugely grateful if you were to have a look at the site and consider giving a pledge. It can be as small as $2, every little bit counts and furthermore it is tax deductible! For those who choose to pledge more, there are some good rewards up for grabs. These include your name on the credits , a free CD from my band, all the way through to your own personal lunch with Rod Quantock himself!

It would also be fantastic if you could share this crowd funding campaign with your family, colleagues, networks, fellow resident group members or activists, or indeed ANYONE. Not everyone is in a position to join SPA, but they may be keen on this project if they are concerned about population - or if they are a Rod Quantock fan!

Every cent will count. We are living in a time when Australia is around the corner from hitting a population of 25 million. Melbourne is now heading upwards of 9 million by 2050, and Australia is growing by the size of a new Canberra every year. We are concreting over our farmland, we are expected to run low in water within a decade and Australia has one of the highest rates of land clearing in the world. We NEED to get the message out there.

Please visit the crowdfunding webpage here to find out more and to leave a pledge

The world’s population is predicted to climb from 7.5 billion to 11 billion by 2100. Given our impact is already higher than Earth’s carrying capacity, such an increase in human numbers will make it impossible to improve or maintain any environmental objective.

We have launched our first ever on-line crowd funding campaign (in addition to the end of financial year appeal). Crowd funding is an increasingly popular way for people to raise money to set up specific projects and can be a great way to gain exposure and a new audience.

SPA is raising funds to launch a mini web series called 'Tough Crowd'. We are excited to announce Melbourne Comedian Rod Quantock has come on board to assist. In his relaxed and amusing 'conversations in the pub' style Rod will interview fellow comedians, entertainers and others about the challenges faced in discussing population in the wider community. SPA is seeking support through our Pozible campaign to fund the whole project, including equipment costs, expenses for our ‘actors’, venue hire, promotion and all the other costs associated with the challenge of making a video series!

The Pozible campaign can be foundhere and Rod Quantock's lively promotional videohere. We would be delighted to have your support and ask too for you to encourage friends, family, and your networks to play a part. This project may appeal to people who might not otherwise consider joining SPA – but they have to know about it first! Even if they choose not to fund the project it is still good publicity.

We are also proud to announce that our PopCulture web page is now up and running - you can find it here. Have a look at our youth unemployment video and share it. Be proud because you and other SPA members previously helped fund this through a donations drive. This site will host future PopCulture videos. That same video can also be found on our newly reinvigorated YouTube channel here. While we plan to undertake online promotion of the videos you, as members, can play a role by sharing them widely, especially with those particularly affected by issues such as job insecurity and housing affordability. Who knows, after seeing the videos they too may be motivated to contribute to our ‘Tough Crowd’ campaign!

We anticipate this event will be a fruitful ground for spreading the news about the need to limit population.

Our former national President, Dr James Ward, will also be delivering a talk at the Environment Fair called ‘Big Australia, Small Planet’ on Saturday 02nd of June around 2pm. James describes the talk as following:

Environmental impact depends on both population and per-capita consumption levels. The relationship between these factors is complex and strangely divisive. This talk will explore some of the difficulties we encounter when we try to discuss population and consumption.

Also on Saturday SPA supporters Animals Anonymous will be presenting at 12 noon on ‘Australian Animals.’ Animals Anonymous are only too aware of the impact that human population growth has on the species we share the continent with. They also run a podcast, and are definitely worth checking out on their website or their Facebook page.

If you are in Adelaide over the weekend, SPA and our presenters would love to see you there for your presence, support and feedback.

SPA run a hugely successful stall in February for Melbourne's Sustainable Living Festival. We’re likewise expecting big things for the SA branch this weekend!

What happens when a professor teaches students about over-population? Chris Bystroff, interviewed on the Overpopulation Podcast has observed they go through the stages of grieving: Denial, Bargaining, Anger, etc. Eventually most reach Acceptance but the startling fact is that most have never even heard of the issue.

Population has almost completely fallen off the radar - or at least in the US. In Australia at least, it's re-emerging with thanks to groups such as SPA.